Discussion on Culture, Race, and Ethnicity

Culture

Culture is not about superficial group differences or just a way to label a group of people.

It is an abstract concept.

It is diverse, dynamic and ever-changing.

It is the shared system of learned and shared values, beliefs and rules of conduct that make people

behave in a certain way.

It is the standard for perceiving, believing, evaluating and acting.

Not everyone knows everything about their own culture.

Race

The term ‘race’ is not appropriate when applied to national, religious, geographic, linguistic or ethnic groups.

Race does not relate to mental characteristics such as intelligence, personality or character.

Race is a term applied to people purely because of the way they look.

It is considered by many to be predominantly a social construct.

It is difficult to say a person belongs to a specific race because there are so many variations such as skin

color.

All human groups belong to the same species (Homosapiens).

Ethnicity

Ethnicity is a sense of peoplehood, when people feel close because of sharing a similarity. It is when you share

the same things, for example:

physical characteristics such as skin color or bloodline,

linguistic characteristics such as language or dialect,

behavioral or cultural characteristics such as religion or customs or

environmental characteristics such as living in the same area or sharing the same place of origin.

Culture, Race & Ethnicity questions

1. How does culture define who a person is?

2. What is your culture?

3. Is this the same as your ethnicity?

4. What is a common belief about race and how is it untrue?

5. Identify some stereotypes you think you know of about a particular group of people. Be respectful.

6. List some of your values, beliefs and customs (1 of each).

7. What are some of the things from your culture that you are proud of?

8. What are some of the things about your culture that you don’t like?

9. How would you describe American culture?

10. What are some cultural issues in American today?

Fill in the table below with information about your own culture. Compare your information with that of your

classmates.

Cultural Feature What is Acceptable? What is not acceptable?

Food

Clothing

Holidays

Religion

Language

Non-verbal communication

Behavior

Rituals

People’s names

Adapted from a Living in Harmony Funded Project, ‘Culture & Colour’, Northern Beaches Neighbourhood

Service, NSW, 2005

Discussion on Assimilation

Consider the following questions while reflecting on this video: What was the conflict? Was there a solution?

How were the characters similar? Different? What is the lesson you learned from the video? How can you

relate?

YouTube video: https://youtu.be/IyQI00uF8_w

Assimilate or Segregate?

Watch the New York Times video “A High School on the Front Line” https://youtu.be/zH2pEWq1Q0M

1. Why is soccer a “melting pot” in the way that school isn’t? Why are opportunities like this important for students new to a community or country to have?

2. What does the reporter mean when she says that the ESOL program at Hylton High is a “modern form of segregation”? In saying this, to what does she allude?

3. What do you think the reporter means when she says “Mixing is at the mercy of typical high school behavior”? What is typical for students your age?

4. If Amalia, the student featured in this video, had dreams of becoming a doctor in Guatemala, why does cleaning houses with her mother now seem like an attractive option? How would you feel if you were in her position?

5. The ESOL program director at Hylton says that “Education is the great equalizer.” Does it always work out that way in practical terms?

6. Non-English-speaking students thrive academically in separate classrooms, but what opportunities do they sacrifice in return?

Introduction to Amy Tan

Writer (1952- )

Amy Tan, whose Chinese name, An-mei, means "blessing from America," was born in

1952 in Oakland, California, the middle child and only daughter of John and Daisy

Tan, who came to America from China in the late 1940s.

When her father and older brother both died from brain tumors in 1966, she moved

with her mother and younger brother to Europe, where she attended high school in

Montreux, Switzerland. She returned to the United States for college, attending

Linfield College in Oregon, San Jose City College, San Jose State University, the

University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of California at Berkeley.

After college, Tan worked as a language development consultant and as a corporate

freelance writer. In 1985, she wrote the story "Rules of the Game" for a writing workshop, which formed the

early foundation for her first novel The Joy Luck Club. Published in 1989, the book explored the relationship

between Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters, and became the longest-running New York

Times bestseller for that year. The Joy Luck Club received numerous awards, including the Los Angeles Times

Book Award. It has been translated into 25 languages, including Chinese, and was made into a major motion

picture for which Tan co-wrote the screenplay.

Her other two books, The Kitchen God's Wife (1991) and The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), have also

appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. Her latest novel, The Bonesetter's Daughter, was published in

2001. Tan has also written two children's books: The Moon Lady (1992) and The Chinese Siamese Cat (1994),

the latter of which was adapted to television for PBS.

Amy Tan has been married to her husband, Lou DeMattei, for over twenty years. They live in San Francisco and

New York.

Source: http://www.biography.com/people/amy-tan-9542574

Journal Activity

Write about a time when you felt embarrassed or ashamed of your own family, background or culture. Were

you able to overcome this embarrassment or shame, and how so?

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Read the following excerpt called “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan. Then answer the questions that follow.

“Fish Cheeks” I fell in love with the minister's son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not

Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-

haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.

When I found out that my parents had invited the minister's family over for

Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of

our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel

upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?

On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling

black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy

rock cod with bulging eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked

wedges of rubbery white sponges. A bowl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs

crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.

And then they arrived – the minister's family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled

Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.

Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the

table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and his family waited patiently for platters to be

passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed

fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft

meat. "Amy, your favorite," he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.

At the end of the meal my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine

cooking. "It's a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied," explained my father to our astonished

guests. Robert was looking down at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet

burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.

After everyone had gone, my mother said to me, "You want to be the same as American girls on the

outside." She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. "But inside you must always be

Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame."

And even though I didn't agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the

evening's dinner. It wasn't until many years later – long after I had gotten over my crush on Robert – that I was able

to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she

had chosen all my favorite foods.

“Fish Cheeks” Annotation Guide

Speaker- In whose shoes is the speaker or writer walking in? Is there an identifiable speaker? What other clues

are there as to the speaker? Age? Gender? Social class? Emotional state? Occupation? Describe the character’s

actions and dialogue. What do they reveal?

Occasion- Is the text a memory? Speech? Letter? Critique? Argument? About what event? Where? When? What

is Tan’s philosophy on family and culture? Identify words, phrases, and sentences that help identify the occasion.

Audience- Who is the intended audience? Whose attention does the speaker seek to gain? Who is the writer

speaking to? Identify words, phrases, and sentences that helps us identify the audience.

Purpose- Think about the modes of writing and the purposes behind those modes. Authors write to entertain, to

inform, to persuade, to critique, to complain, to explain, to reflect, to describe, sometimes to simply express a

truth. What do you think is the purpose of this memoir excerpt? What does he want us to think about?

Subject- Identify topics that Tan is trying to address in this memoir. Shame is one but are others? Identify words,

phrases, and sentences that helps us identify the subjects.

Tone- Tone is the attitude of the speaker towards his subject and audience. Who is the speaker? What is the

subject? What is the speaker’s attitude towards his subject? What words contribute to the tone of the text?

Ask Questions: What questions do you have about the text? Ask at least 1 question.

Make Connections: Make a note anytime you can connect what you are reading with something you

already know or have experienced. A connection can be text to text, text to self, or

text to world. Make at least 1 connection.

Write a Summary: Summarize paragraphs in your own words. Summarize a minimum of 2 paragraphs.

Mark Important Words: What diction (word choice) stands out? What effect does it have on the text? Identify 3

important words and explain their importance and effect.

Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking

______1. What occurred during Christmas Eve dinner that caused Amy’s despair? A. The minister belched. B. Robert’s family misbehaved. C. Amy’s family observed Chinese customs. D. Amy’s mother did not cook enough food. ______2. What does the “beige tweed miniskirt” that Amy Tan’s mother gave her for Christmas symbolize in the passage? A. American culture B. Chinese culture C. Amy’s modesty D. Amy’s frustration

______3. What did Tan’s mother mean when she said to Amy, “You only shame is to have shame?” A. Her mother is attempting to point out that Amy should not be embarrassed about her culture. B. Amy’s actions at dinner were embarrassing to her mother. C. Amy embarrassed the entire family by taking the fish cheeks. D. Amy’s mother felt Amy should not attempt to be American in any way.

______4. Which of these words best describes the overall tone of this piece? A. nervous B. threatened C. forceful D. reflective ______5. What is Amy Tan’s purpose in writing this memory? A. Tan likes telling childhood stories. B. As a mature adult, Tan realizes the significance behind her experiences. C. Tan wishes to remember all of the boys she liked as a teenager. D. Tan wishes to remember traditional Chinese customs. ______6. Why did Tan name this passage “Fish Cheeks”? A. Fish cheeks are the best part of the fish according to Chinese culture. B. Fish cheeks remind Tan of her father, who gave them to her at Christmas. C. Tan realizes her parents were attempting to teach Robert’s family about Chinese culture. D. Tan realizes her parents were attempting to help Amy’s transition into America by giving her all of her favorite foods. ______7. Why does Tan use a colon in the following sentence: “The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil”? A. to break the sentence into two parts B. to connect two thoughts without using “and” C. to take the place of a semicolon D. to indicate a list of items

Poetry Analysis

What the poet says

First Reading

What the poet does

Second Reading: Annotate for the tools the poet uses.

What the poet implies

Final Reading: Draw conclusions/assertions about the effect of the tools used based on the poem (theme,

character, etc.). 1. Does the poem read like a narrative or an experience? 2. From whose point of view is this poem written in? How do you know? 3. Who are the characters? What happens in the poem? Where does it take place? 4. What conflict is described in the poem? Is it internal or external?

5. List all of the actions and emotions in the poem. Include what is actually written, and what you can infer.

“Immigrants”

By Pat Mora

wrap their babies in the American flag, feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie,

name them Bill and Daisy, buy them blonde dolls that blink blue

eyes or a football and tiny cleats before the baby can even walk, speak to them in thick English,

hallo, babee, hallo, whisper in Spanish or Polish

when the babies sleep, whisper in a dark parent bed, that dark

parent fear, “Will they like our boy, our girl, our fine American

boy, our fine American girl?”

Diction (strong word choice):

Images (sights, sounds, tastes, smells, etc.):

Details (It’s the little things…):

Figurative Language (simile, metaphor,

personification, mood & tone, etc.):

6. What do the foods, names and sports symbolize?

7. What is theme of the poem?

8. What do the parents fear? Are their fears realistic?

9. What is the mood of the poem? 10. Is it good for the child that the parents make them become American? Why or why not?

Venn Diagram

List 2 similarities and 4 differences between the story “Fish Cheeks” and the poem “Immigrant

Expository Article Analysis “Self-Concept”

By Saul McLeod 2008

Because most people identify as separate from other people, they have some concept of themselves. Self-concept refers to how people “think about, evaluate, or perceive” themselves. Carl Rogers split the idea of self-concept into three different components including self-image, self-esteem and ideal self. In this text, Saul McLeod explains these ideas in more detail. As you read the article, take notes on the different factors that affect a person's self-concept.

The term self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about, evaluates or perceives themselves. To be aware of oneself is to have a concept of oneself. […] Carl Rogers (1959) believes that the self-concept has three different components:

1. The view you have of yourself (Self-image) 2. How much value you place on yourself (Self-esteem or self-worth) 3. What you wish you were really like (Ideal self)

SELF IMAGE What you see in yourself This does not necessarily have to reflect reality. Indeed a person with anorexia who is thin may have a self-image in which the person believes they are fat. A person's self-image is affected by many factors, such as parental influences, friends, the media etc. Kuhn (1960) investigated the self-image by using The Twenty Statements Test. He asked people to answer the question “Who Am I?” in 20 different ways. He found that the responses could be divided into two major groups. These were social roles (external or objective aspects of oneself such as son, teacher, friend) and personality traits (internal or affective aspects of oneself such as gregarious, impatient, humorous). The list of answers to the question “Who Am I?” probably include examples of each of the following four types of responses:

1. Physical Description: I’m tall, have blue eyes...etc.

2. Social Roles: We are all social beings whose behavior is shaped to some extent by the roles we play. Such roles as student, housewife, or member of the football team not only help others to recognize us but also help us to know what is expected of us in various situations.

3. Personal Traits: These are a third dimension of our self-descriptions. “I’m impulsive...I’m generous...I tend to worry a lot”...etc.

4. Existential Statements (abstract ones): These can range from "I’m a child of the universe" to "I’m a human being" to "I’m a spiritual being"...etc.

Typically young people describe themselves more in terms of personal traits, whereas older people feel defined to a greater extent by their social roles.

SELF-ESTEEM & SELF-WORTH

The extent to which you value yourself Self-esteem refers to the extent to which we like accept or approve of ourselves or how much we value ourselves. Self-esteem always involves a degree of evaluation and we may have either a positive or a negative view of ourselves. HIGH SELF ESTEEM i.e. we have a positive view of ourselves. This tends to lead to:

Confidence in our own abilities

Self-acceptance Not worrying about what others think Optimism

LOW SELF ESTEEM i.e. we have a negative view of ourselves. This tends to lead to:

Lack of confidence Desire to be/look like someone else Always worrying what others might think Pessimism

There are several ways of measuring self-esteem. For example, Harrill Self Esteem Inventory is a questionnaire comprising 15 statements about a range of interest. Another example is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), which is a neutral cartoon given to the participant who then has to devise a story about what's going on. Morse and Gergen (1970) showed that in uncertain or anxiety arousing situations our self-esteem may change rapidly. Participants were waiting for a job interview in a waiting room. They were sat with another candidate (a confederate of the experimenter) in one of two conditions:

1. Mr. Clean - dressed in smart suit, carrying a briefcase opened to reveal a slide rule and books. 2. Mr. Dirty - dressed in an old T-shirt and jeans, slouched over a cheap sex novel.

Self-esteem of participants with Mr. Dirty increased whilst those with Mr. Clean decreased! No mention made of how this affected subjects’ performance in interview. Level of self-esteem affects performance at numerous tasks though (Coopersmith, 1967) so could expect Mr. Dirty subjects to perform better than Mr. Clean. Even though self-esteem might fluctuate, there are times when we continue to believe good things about ourselves even when evidence to the contrary exists. This is known as the perseverance effect. Miller and Ross (1975) showed that people who believed they had socially desirable characteristics continued in this belief even when the experimenters tried to get them to believe the opposite. Does the same thing happen with bad things if we have low self-esteem? Maybe not, perhaps with very low self-esteem all we believe about ourselves might be bad. Argyle (2008) believes there are 4 major factors that influence self-esteem.

1. THE REACTION OF OTHERS. If people admire us, flatter us, seek out our company, listen attentively and

agree with us we tend to develop a positive self-image. If they avoid us, neglect us, tell us things about

ourselves that we don’t want to hear we develop a negative self-image.

2. COMPARISON WITH OTHERS. If the people we compare ourselves with (our reference group) appear to

be more successful, happier, richer, better looking than ourselves we tend to develop a negative self-

image BUT if they are less successful than us our image will be positive.

3. SOCIAL ROLES. Some social roles carry prestige e.g. doctor, airline pilot, TV presenter, premiership

footballer and this promotes self-esteem. Other roles carry stigma. E.g. prisoner, mental hospital

patient, refuse collector or unemployed person.

4. IDENTIFICATION. Roles aren’t just “out there.” They also become part of our personality i.e. we identity

with the positions we occupy, the roles we play and the groups we belong to.

IDEAL SELF What you'd like to be If there is a mismatch between how you see yourself (e.g. your self-image) and what you’d like to be (e.g. your ideal self) then this is likely to affect how much you value yourself. Therefore, there is an intimate relationship between self-image, ego-ideal and self-esteem. Humanistic psychologists study this using the Q-Sort Method. A person’s ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in life and experiences of the person. Hence, a difference may exist between a person’s ideal self and actual experience. This is called incongruence. Where a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of congruence exists. Rarely, if ever does a total state of congruence exist; all people experience a certain amount of incongruence. The development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. Roger’s believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence. Michael Argyle (2008) says there are four major factors which influence its development:

The ways in which others (particularly significant others) react to us. How we think we compare to others

Our social roles The extent to which we identify with other people

REFERENCES Argyle, M. (2008). Social Encounters: Contributions to Social Interaction. Aldine Transaction Baumeister, R. F. (Ed.) (1999). The Self in Social Psychology. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press (Taylor & Francis). Bee, H. L. (1992). The developing child. London: HarperCollins. Coopersmith, S. (1967). The antecedents of self-esteem. San Francisco: Freeman. Kuhn, M. H. (1960). Self-Attitudes by Age, Sex and Professional Training. Sociological Quarterly, 1, 39-56. Lewis, M. (1990). Self-knowledge and social development in early life. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.), Handbook of personality (pp. 277-300). New York: Guilford. Miller, D. T., & Ross, M. (1975). Self-serving biases in the attribution of causality: Fact or fiction? Psychological Bulletin, 82, 213–225 Morse, S. J. & Gergen, K. J. (1970). Social comparison, self-consistency and the concept of self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 148-156. Rogers, C. (1959). A Theory of Therapy, Personality and Interpersonal Relationships as Developed in the Client-centered Framework. In (ed.) S. Koch, Psychology: A Study of a Science. Vol. 3: Formulations of the Person and the Social Context. New York: McGraw Hill.

“Self-Concept” Expository Analysis and Reflection Questions

1. According to Carl Rogers, what are the three different components of self-concept? Briefly explain each one

in your own words.

2. According to the text, what four factors affect a person’s self-image? Give an example of how the media

could negatively affect a person’s self-image.

3. Can a person’s self-esteem change? Cite evidence from the text.

4. If someone asked, who are you? How would you respond?

5. What makes you who you are? Use evidence from this text, your own experience, and other art, literature, or

history in your answer.